Jim Haughey, chief economist for Reed Construction Data, writes about the January 2009 value of construction starts, excluding residential, at the Reed website here. Overall, the value of construction starts in January 2009 was up 5.3% over January 2008, but starts fell 23% from December, which, after accounting for the usual seasonal decline in January, [...]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has published the workshop presentations and materials from its sixth annual DOE Solid-State Lighting R&D Workshop in San Francisco, held February 3-5, 2009. A complete workshop report will be posted later in March. Click here for conference highlights. Click here to download the presentations.

Using Apple’s iPod as an example, new research released by a team from UC Irvine’s Merage School of Business sheds light on the debate about globalization and its impact on U.S. workers. Results from the study, which was funded by the Sloan Foundation, indicate that innovation by U.S. companies can create high-wage jobs for U.S. [...]

Kevin Willmorth sums up the tradeoffs of globalization in his lighting and energy conservation blog. He makes the point that the U.S. economy is currently overly focused on taking profit from a devaluation process instead of one that builds value. The long term result is a loss of competitiveness and erosion of wages and qualify [...]

Friend, colleague and fellow blogger Kevin Willmorth, principal of Lumenique, performed an interesting experiment recently to produce an LED PAR lamp with a light pattern somewhere between an R20 spot and a PAR20 flood, with an R20 flood’s light output. He produced his own LED lamp using spare parts from a halogen PAR20, CFL, 4W [...]

Jason Bruges Studio, a UK-based studio producing interactive light sculpture and environments, was commissioned to create a lighting art feature for a 10-story atrium in Allen & Overy’s new headquarters at 1 Bishop’s Square, London. The Studio produced an eight-story 3D chandelier comprised entirely of individually addressable LED light globes developed with manufacturer Ledon, controlled [...]

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009–the “stimulus package”–has been passed, which includes $311 billion in appropriations. President Obama will sign the bill into law on Tuesday, February 17, and then let the spending begin. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that the plan will generate 1-3 million jobs. In the past 12 months, 3.5 [...]

Day-Brite Capri Omega (DCO) Lighting Institute will hold a specifier seminar on office lighting at its facility in Tupelo, Mississippi on March 26 and 27. The seminar will focus on lighting issues, specifically how lighting can contribute to the creation of the most sustainable and efficient workplace lighting environments. Issues include glare, task visibility, psychological [...]

DOE’s main solid-state lighting proponent, Jim Brodrick, recently reported in from the DOE SSL workshop, just held in San Francisco, for those who couldn’t make it with one of his best letters (“Postings: From the Desk of Jim Brodrick”) to date. The conference presentations, by the way, should be published on the DOE SSL website [...]